Bricks

An old Jewish legend about the Tower of Babel reports that the people building the tower valued the bricks more than human lives. As the tower grew higher and higher, it took longer and longer to get a load of bricks to the top, where the construction was still advancing. Occasionally the workers would lose their footing and plummet to their death. Occasionally a brick would be dropped by one of the laborers. When the people below saw a person fall, they expressed no sympathy, but when they saw brick fall to the ground they all wept because it would take so long to get another brick to the top to replace the one that fell.

This is the nature of blind ambition. When the project we are working on is more important than the people around us, things are out of balance. When spending time at the office, church or congregation is more important than being home with the family, we are making bricks.